DHRUVA STUTI ENGLISH

“Prasadhabhi Mukham Shasvath, Prasanna vada nekshanam

Su nasam, Su bhruvam, Charu Kapolam, Sura Sudharam

Tarunam Ramaniyangam, arunoo stekshana adharam

Pranatha (a)shrayam runnam, Sharanyam karunar navam

Srivat sankam, Ganashyamam, Purusham Vanamalinam

Sanka Chakra Gadha Padmai, Abhi veptha Chattur Bhujam

Kiritinam, Kundalinam, Keyura valayan mitham

Kousthuba bharana grivam, pita kausheya vasasam

Kanchi galapa paryastham

Lasath kanchana nupuram (anklets),Padyam naka mani shrenyam

Darshaneeya thamam Shantham, mano nayana varjitham” – SB 4.8.45

The Lord appears after an intense penance from Dhruva. This stuti is an extraordinary piece of 12 verses occurring in the

4th skanda of Bhagavatam. Though the Bhagavatam contains many such hymns in praise of the Lord, this one has a

unique place , because it was given out by the blessed little boy who first dared not speak a word but was immediately

prompted from within by the Absolute Itself. In this sense this hymn is the pinnacle of praise. It may be supposed to be the

authentic voice of the Lord Himself on Himself. Naturally it contains the cream of all vedic and vedantic teaching. Usually

exponents of Bhagavatam do not find the time to go into this fully. They concentrate only on the first verse. We shall go

through all of them verse by verse. Each verse is given in original, followed by a translation and a commentary.

Verse No.1

y’ontaH praviSya, mama vAcaM imAm prasuptAM

sanjIvayaty-akhila-Sakti-dharas svadhAmnA|

anyAMSca hasta caraNa-SravaNa-tvagAdhIn

prANAn-namo bhagavate purushAya tubhyaM ||

My Lord, I make my prostrations to You. You are the One who has entered into me as my inner soul making me speak. My

speech has been dormant all along. You are the One who makes my ears hear, my hands work, my feet walk, my tactile

senses to feel, my life to vibrate – all by your Glory, my Lord, who wields Infinite Power.

The words ‘antaH praviSya‘ (= entered into) go back to the vedic source:

‘Having created the world, He entered it; Having entered it, He became the Truth as well as the opposite of it – tat

sRshtvA| tad-evAnu-prAviSat|tad-anu-praviSya|saccatyaccA-bhavat ||

- TaittirIya Upanishad

Here the ‘entering’ has to be understood carefully. It is not as if the world was separate from Him and then He entered it. He

is the world and so there is no question of ‘entering’ it. The ‘entering’ is an understatement due to paucity of words. This is

where words fail, even for the Upanishads, to describe Him and His glories. The commentators emphasize the prefix ‘anu‘ in

the word ‘anu-praviSya‘ in the Upanishad and say that this is an indication of the characteristic of Immanence (= antar-

vyApti) of the Lord; it is not a physical ‘entering’ or a ‘becoming’ but it is a case of ‘being’. The Lord is within us ever from

Creation. The very reason why He can never leave you (“thu akela nahi hai re manav”).

This whole universe has Him as its Life-spirit, says the Lord in the Gita (VII – 5):

jIva-bhUtAm mahA-bAho yayedam dhAryate jagat.

There are two facets of the Spiritual Energy, the Energy of the Lord. One is called the Supreme (parA-) and the other is not-

so-supreme (aparA-). The former is the one which gives life to all beings. And the latter is what makes matter what it is. This

latter is made up of the five elements plus Mind plus Intellect plus Ego – these constitute the eight-fold aparA- prakRti as it

is technically called. prakRti, is simply the Cosmic Energy of the Lord. The parA-prakRti is what makes our life tick. The

infinitesimal fragment of this parA-prakRti is the life in us. It is what makes this material body and mind have life, it is what

rejuvenates our senses, it is what enlivens them, in short, without it there is no life. So Dhruva says: You are the One who

are making me speak, you are the one who is making my eyes see, my mouth speak..

Otherwise; I did not know how and what to talk. You are the one who has given life (sanjIvayati) to my speech and made me

give out this poem of praise. All this you are doing by your dhAma, i.e., your own Glory, Your Majesty and Your Will. To such

a life-giving principle as you are, I make my prostrations.

And he uses the word namaH as anybody would do in this context. The word namaH in Sanskrit has an esoteric

connotation. In simple terms it means ‘prostration’. But that is only in the translation, which is convenient, but not faithful.

The combination of the syllables na and ma in the word has been interpreted by scholars to denote the self-negating

expression na-ma-ma, which means, ‘not mine’. In fact it is even declared that there is a significance in the syllable ‘na’

preceding the syllable ‘ma’; Man is so so feeble-minded and so possessive that if he says ‘ma’ first, which signifies ‘mine’

he may not have the heart to say ‘na’ (signifying negation) later!

This expression of humility before the Lord has to be repeated infinite number of times so that it may get into our system and

serve as a vAsanA, even in our next lives. More so, when one offers worship to the Almighty the word namaH gets added

significance because it constantly reminds us that what we possess is not ours, it is all His. Very compassionately therefore,

the Upanishad says:

If one worships Him with namaH, at his feet do desires prostrate.

taM nama ity-upAsIta |namyante’smai kAmAH || …..taittirIya-Upanishad.

- meaning, desires obey him who worships God with the word namaH. Usually it is the desires that control us and make us

their slaves. If only we can find a way of desires listening to us and our discretion, half the battle is won. This is exactly

where the Upanishads become most relevant to daily life. Worship Him with namaH, says the Upanishad — then you will

not have to worry about your desires. Strategically, then, this is the Way!

Verse No.2

ekas-tvameva bhagavan-nidam Atma-SaktyA

mAyAkhyayoru-guNayA mahad-AdyaSeshaM |

sRshTvA-nuviSya purushas-tadasad-guNeshu

nAneva dArushu vibhAvasuvad-vibhAsi ||

You are just one, O Lord, but by your own Power called mAyA Sakti consisting of the three guNas, you have caused the

mahat principle and all its successor phenomena. Having thus created and entered all the diverse forms (as their inner

Light) you appear as many, even as fire appears as diverse in different logs of burning wood.

mAyA the projecting Power, is the first sprouting from the Lord. In the scientific world we think it is the big bang that was

the first event in the cosmic evolution of things. You are not supposed to ask what went on before the big bang. In Vedanta

mAyA is the origin of everything including the explicit manifestation of Time (= kAla). It is that which projects this universe

and hides the Reality. The Reality is called sat. What we see or experience in the form of the universe is (relatively) unreal

and so is called asat. The three constituents of mAyA, namely, the three guNas (satva, rajas, and tamas), make up the

universe. So the substratum of these unreal objects is the Reality of the Absolute. The Lord through his mAyA has projected

the universe and has ‘entered’ it. It is significant that the vedic word ‘anu-viSya’ itself is used here signifying the

immanence of the Absolute . That is why the entire teaching of the philosophy boils down to the formula: What you see as

the universe is, in reality, brahman, not the universe. Put in a more simplistic way this says: It is God that is everywhere. All

religions say that God is everywhere. But the immanence theory of Hinduism says much more, namely, there is nothing but

God anywhere. Even when we see the Sun shining, it is not the Sun that is the Agent for the shining, but it is the Almighty

that is shining through the physical object called the Sun; (Gita 15 – 12):

yadAditya gataM tejo jagad-bhAsayate’khilam |

yac-candramasi yaccAgnau tatejo viddhi mAmakaM||

That Light which is residing in the Sun and which illumines the whole world, and that which is in the moon and in the fire-

know that Light to be Mine

One of the standard mantras that is repeated when we wave the lighted Arti before the Lord at the end of ritual worship,

says: (SvetASvatara-Upanishad: 6-14)

tameva bhAntam anubhAti sarvaM,tasya bhAsA sarvam-idam vibhAti

Everything owes its existence to His Existence; all that shines shines because of His Light.

The same idea is expressed in the thought that the Self is the Light within and it is because of that Light we see what we see

and we feel what we feel. The illuminating analogy for this is a lamp placed within a covered basket (or pot) with several

holes in it. The light from within the enclosure of the pot passes through the holes and lights up the outside. We are told by

the scriptures that the physical universe that we see is the manifestation of the Light within us, namely the Self. For more on

this thought process, go to the Hymn to the Guru, particularly the fourth verse in that hymn.

The Ultimate Supreme is the only one that gives the sanction for the expression of anything in the world, whether animate or

inanimate. By itself the Supreme has no name or form. But since it is immanent in everything, it appears as the diverse

objects of the universe. Fire shows itself in various forms, depending on the size and shape of the object which burns . So

also the Lord appears now as this and now as that depending on what object we are looking at. cf. katha-Upanishad: (II – ii

– 9):

agnir-yathaiko bhuvanaM pratishTo

rUpaM rUpaM prati-rUpo babhUva |

ekastathA sarva-bhUtAntarAtmA

rUpam rUpaM prati-rUpo bahiSca ||

Just as fire, though one, having entered the world, assumes separate forms in respect of different shapes, similarly, the Self,

inside all beings, though one, assumes a form in respect of each shape; and (yet) it is outside.

The Upanishads do not tire in giving analogies. For more analogies on how this Universe has brahman immanent in it,

without brahman undergoing any changes by itself or in itself, go to Absolute As It is.

Verse No.3

tvad-dattayA vayunayedam acashTa viSvam

supta-prabhuddha iva nAtha bhavat-prapannaH|

tasyApavargya-SaraNaM tava pAda-mUlaM

vismaryate kRta-vidA katham Arta-bandho||

O Lord, O friend of the distressed! You gave the vision to Lord Brahma who thereby visualised the universe (to be created

by Him) as one who woke up from sleep. How can one forget your divine feet which is the sole refuge even for those who

are liberated?

Before we proceed further we need to have a little introduction to the remaining verses. The whole hymn is in praise of

brahman. But brahman is not describable in words, say the scriptures. In fact they describe it only in negatives, such as: it

cannot be indicated, it cannot be related, it cannot be specified by categories, it cannot be delimited by characteristics, and

so on. So how do you then glorify the brahman or describe it in a hymn? And here the Lord Himself is doing it through the

mouth of Dhruva. So first brahman is described in terms of taTastha-lakshaNa, i.e. in terms of definitions which are only

indicative, not specific. In other words, instead of directly pointing out to brahman which is a tall order, even for the vedas,

one looks at the created universe and infers the Almighty behind. Thus verse Nos. 3 to 9 indicate brahman by dwelling on

its creative power rather than its essential nature as It is. The svarUpa-lakshaNa, definition-as-it-is, is taken up in verses 10

and 11. It is interesting to note that, this little boy who is giving out this hymn, has put so much organization into this poem of

praise, by separating the two ways in which brahman is traditionally referred. Rightly may we conisder the poem as an

inspired one coming out of his mouth by the inspiration through the vedas which the divine Conch passed on to him.

It was You who gave the divine sight to the Creator Himself to recall how He did the Creation in the previous cycle. Let us

note here that the Hindu theory of Creation and Dissolution is a phenomenon of recurring cycles. Once Creation starts it is

Brahma’s day. When everything dissolves in the Infinite Absolute the day-time of Brahma is over and Brahma ‘sleeps’ as it

were. The next morning there is another day of manifestation, that is, creation – which will end up in Brahma’s evening by

another dissolution. Each such day of Brahma is called one kalpa. On the beginning of every such day, it is the Lord that has

to ‘sanctify’ Brahma with the necessary spiritual power to create the universe.

For more on this go to Cosmic Day of Brahma

The words ‘tvad-dattayA’ are significant. It is the Lord that sanctioned the Creator Brahma the knowledge of the Vedas

which are eternal. How does a new-born child get the knowledge and strategy to suck the milk out of the mother’s breast? It

is a vAsanA from previous births, granted by the Lord. Maybe Science will one day isolate the gene that is responsible for

the capability of the child to suck milk. (Probably, it has, already). But even then, is that the end of all questions? Why

does that gene have that property? What or Who gave it that property? This kind of questioning will continue for ever in the

scientific world. It is only an infinite regression. Ultimately after every finite stage of our knowledge we have to end up with

the concept of ‘tvad-dattayA’ (given by You, Oh Lord). This is a sound illustration of the taTastha-lakshaNa that is being

elaborated in these verses. We cannot see Him through ordinary perception but it is He that is the ultimate reservoir and

source of everything that we think we know or do.

In mathematical terms we may describe the relation between Science with its understanding of the universe on the one

hand and God the almighty on the other hand as follows in terms of the two lakshaNas, taTastha-lakshaNa and svarUpa-

lakshaNa. The latter is given by the scriptures as satyam-jnAnam-anantam brahma ( See the Absolute As It Is). The former

is only an approximation, given by scientific understanding of the universe as of a particular time. It is like summing up an

infinite series in mathematics. In Mathematics we know that, for instance,

1 + 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/6 + 1/24 + 1/120 + 1/720 + … + 1/n! + … = e

This simply means that the infinite series on the left sums up to a number called ‘e’. This latter number is a very important

but complicated number. Its value lies between 2 and 3. Its actual value has infinite number of decimal places. Now if you

take 10 terms of the above series and actually add them up you will get a number approximately equal to e. If you take 100

terms and sum up again, you will get a better approximation to the same e. Thus the larger the number of terms of the

series you take and add up, the better you get an approximation to e. But whatever number of terms you take, even if it be

in millions you will never get the actual value of the number e. This is what is happening in the approximation of Science to

Spiritual Reality. However forward Science may move in terms of understanding Reality, there will be questions at the end

for which you will have to resort to the concept of ‘tvad-dattayA’!

Verse No.4

nUnaM vimushTa-matayas-tava mAyayA te

ye tvAm bhavApyaya-vimokshaNam-anya-hetoH |

arcanti kalpaka-taruM kuNapopa-bhogyaM

icchanti yat-sparSajaM niraye’pi nRNAM ||

You are the One who can grant the release from birth and death. But if people worship you for other benefits and ask you,

who are a wish-fulfilling tree, material pleasures to be experienced by the body, which is itself no better than a corpse, their

intelligence has certainly been confounded by mAyA; because the material pleasures can be experienced even in hell.

We are all of crooked intelligence, says this verse. Why? The Lord is a wish-fulfilling tree who can give even the final

release from births and deaths. Instead of asking this of the Lord we ask from him all sorts of mundane transitory realities.

Remember, Dhruva came to the forest to do penance, to see the Lord and ask of Him how he can get onto the lap of his

father – the ‘privilege’ denied to him by his step-mother. But now, the very Lord that is speaking through him has probably

made him forget that mundane triviality.

The most significant word in this verse is bhavApyaya-vimokshaNaM, meaning ‘the release from birth (bhava) and death

(apyaya)’. On the face of it this means the release from the transmigratory cycle. But it means more. It means release from

three bondages which cause this transmigratory whirl. They are kartRtvaM (the feeling that I am the doer), bhoktRtvaM (the

feeling that I am the experiencer) and ajnAnaM (Ignorance of the Reality). The first one is the series of thoughts like: I did

this , therefore I am meritorious; I did that, therefore I am sinful. The second one is the series of thoughts like: I am happy; I

am sorrowful. These two feelings of agency as the doer and agency as the experiencer are caused by a further root cause,

namely Ignorance. This Ignorance is that of not knowing the Self as different from the body-mind-intellect. It superim poses

the things that pertain to the body-mind-intellect on the Self behind. The Release that is talked about in the verse is the

release from these three basic causes of samsAra.

The fact that we are of such crooked intelligence is itself due to the play of mAyA. Otherwise why did Man eat the apple in

the Garden of Eden? The three bondages mentioned above constitute a vicious cycle that is exactly the doing of the mAyA.

The latter is nothing but prakRti working in the presence of the Lord. cf. Gita: (9 – 10):

mayA-dhyaksheNs prakRtiH sUyate sa-carAcaraM

In My supervision and control, prakRti produces the moving and unmoving world.

Verse No.5

yA nirvRtis-tanu-bhRtAM tava pAda-padma-

dhyAnAd-bhavajjana-kathASravaNena vA syAt|

sA brahmaNi sva-mahimanyapi nAtha mA bhUt

kiM tvantakAsi lulitAt-patatAM vimAnAt ||

What bliss one gains by meditating on your lotus feet or by listening to the stories of your devotees, that bliss is not

obtainable even in the experience of brahman; what to speak of those who are catapulting down the abyss caused by the

eternal sword of Time?

So far the Lord has been indicated by His taTastha-lakshaNa. Before we go to the svarUpa-lakshaNa in the 10th verse, the

hymn swings the thought process to bhakti – which is the only path to understand Him as He is and what He is. cf. Gita (18-

55):

bhaktyA mAm abhijAnAti yAvAn-yaScAsmi tatvataH

By Devotion one understands Me as to What I am and Who I am.

This verse is one of the earliest authorities, in terms of the cosmic chronology of events, for the concept of bhakti as the

most ideal path to moksha. It extols bhakti over and above even the so-called experience of the Absolute State of

enlightenment, denoted by the glorious name of brahma-anubhavaM. The Bliss that arises from that transcendental state is

spoken of as the Infinite Bliss in all scriptures and by all great seers. Here Dhruva says even that pales into insignificance

before the bliss that one enjoys in the three major activities of devotion, namely, Meditation of His form in the mind, Singing

by the mouth in praise of His Glories, and Bowing by the body to Him in obeisance. cf. Vishnu sahsra-nAmaM – preliminary

verses:

dhyAyan-stuvan-namsyamSca

meditating, praising and bowing

The mind that attaches to God automatically liberates. The thesis here is that such a mind is already experience the

transcendental experience of bliss, it need not wait for the so-called mukti.

Verse No.6

bhaktiM muhuH pravahatAM tvayi me prasango

bhUyAd-ananta-mahatAM amalASayAnAM |

yenAnjasolbaNam-uruvyasanaM bhavAbdhiM

neshye bhavad-guNa-kathAmRta-pAna-mattaH ||

May my association be with those noble souls whose minds are pure and in whom bhakti is overflowing incessantly. By that

very association I will easily cross dangerous and sorrowful ocean of samsAra, intoxicated as I will be with the nectar of the

stories of Your Glory.

This sets up the tradition of sat-sangh, the association with noble souls. In all of Hindu religious literature (and there is no

reason to suppose it is otherwise in other religious literature) the value of such association is never superseded by any

other religious value. It is the only force which inexorably produces the attachment to the divine. The very strange and

powerfully distracting (ulbaNam) abyss of samsAra can be crossed very easily (anjasA) by the spiritualising effect of

sharing of the Lord’s stories and exploits with like-minded souls of devotion. Every one of their activities, consciously done or

unconsciously, is an eloquent expression of the surge of divine love and proclaim it to the whole world. They are like the

neem tree which purifies the very air we breathe. That is why Narada confidently says, (Narada-bhakti-sUtra No.68):

kaNTAvarodha-romAncASrubhiH

parasparaM lapamAnAH pAvayanti kulAni pRthVIMca ||

Conversing with one another with choking voice, tearful eyes,

and horripilation, they purify not only their families

but the land which gave birth to them.

Verse No.7

te na smarantyatitarAM priyamISa martyaM

ye cAnvadas-suta-suhRd-gRha-vitta-dArAH |

ye tvabja-nAbha-bhavadIya-padAra-vinda-

saugandhya-lubdha-hRdayeshu kRta-prasangAH||

Oh Padmanabha! They do not get involved in the memory of either their mortal body, or its necessary accessories as kith

and kin, friend and foe, property, money and spouse; because they are already immersed in the association with noble

souls whose minds are lost in the fragrance of Your divine feet.

This verse characterises divine love, also called Spiritual Love (see the entire chapter on The Art and Science of Spiritual

Love starting from ‘The non-Absolutist School’). The finest example of this was that of the gopis to Lord Krishna. cf.

Bhagavatam.10-30-44:

tan-manaskAs-tadAlApAH tad-viceShTAs-tadAtmikAH /

tadguNAn-eva gAyantyaH nAtmAgArANi sasmaruH ||

Their hearts given to Him, they talked of Him alone, they imitated His sportful activities,

they could not think of themselves as different from Him. Singing His glories all the time,

they could not think of their own homes.

The Gita praises this kind of spiritual Love as the Acme of bhakti . It refers to this as total involvement and complete

commitment to the Divine, in Gita (5 – 17):

tadbuddhayas-tadAtmAnaH tannishTAs-tat-parAyaNAH |

gachanty-apunarAvRttiM jnAna-nirdhUta-kalmashAH ||

Intellect absorbed in That Absolute,

their Self being That Itself, established in That Self,

with That for their supreme Goal, they go whence

there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.

It would be quite appropriate here to recall the classic instance from the Ramayana where Sita, left alone as Ravana’s

captive in the Asoka grove, is counting days in the expectation that Her Lord would one day come and redeem her. This is

how Hanuman who, having located her from his hiding place on the trees, describes her state of spiritual yearning for the

One Spiritual absolute, Rama. (Valmiki Ramayana: 5 – 16-25):

naishA paSyati rAkshasyo nemAn pushpa-phala-drumAn |

ekastha-hRdayA nUnaM rAmam-evAnupaSyati ||

She does not see the rAkshasis

nor does she see these trees laden with flowers and fruits.

Her heart is centred on one single object (alone)

and she is undoubtedly seeing Rama and Rama alone all the time.

Verse No.8

tiryang-naga-dvija-sarI-sRpa-deva-daitya-

martyAdibhiH paricitaM sad-asad-viSeshaM |

rUpaM sthavishTaM aja te mahad-AdyanekaM

nAtaH paraM parama vedmi na yatra vAdaH ||

Oh Ultimate One! The Birthless One! I know only this magnificent material form of Yours which has causes like mahat and

the like, which is full of gross and subtle elements and which is constituted by the world of animals, mountains, trees, birds,

reptiles, gods, demons and humans. I do not know that which transcends all words, (that which is behind all these).

Dhruva comes back to the taTastha-lakshaNa but now refers to the Transcendence aspect of the Lord. Verses 1 and 2

emphasized the Immanence aspect, verse 3 started the taTastha -lakshaNa, verses 4 to 7 were overcome with the bhakti

aspect which that taTastha-lakshaNa prompted and he now continues the taTastha-lakshaNa. And in recalling the

transcendence aspect of the Lord he points to the dizzy heights of philosophy in the same way one points to the

Transcendental Absolute by the indicative character of the taTastha-lakshaNa. He says in so many words; I see You in the

universe but I don’t see You who are transcending the universe. In saying this he is echoing the sentiments expressed in

the famous nAsadIya-sUkta of Rg-veda. We quote below from the corresponding portion of the yajur veda, where there is

almost a repetition of the nAsadIya-sUkta:

ko addhA veda ka iha pravocat | kuta AjAtA kuta iyam visRshTiH ||

arvAg devA asya visarjane na| athA ko veda yata AbabhUva ||

iyam visRshTir-yata AbabhUva | yadi vAdadhe yadi vA na ||

yo asyA-dhyakshaH parame vyoman | so anga veda yadi vA na veda||

Who verily knows and who can declare it?

Whence it was born ,and whence this manifold creation sprang?

The lower gods who came later into being would not know.

Does the Creator, from whom everything came, know?

Does He know whether it was His will or not that formed it?

The Most High Seer that is in highest heaven,

He verily knows it — or perchance He knows not.

So Dhruva says: This entire universe, animate and inanimate, the gross as well as the subtle is pervaded by you, but You

are said to transcend everything. You are said to be beyond words. Of the five elements, Earth, Water and fire can be

visually seen – these constitute the sat; Air and Space cannot be visually seen – these constitute the asat. The entire

universe is made up of the sat and the asat. But You are beyond both. Also sat represents the concrete effect, namely the

Space and the other elements. And asat represents the subtle Cause behind, like the Unmanifest. You transcend both.

Thus You are beyond Cause and Effect. You are not comprehensible by words. You cannot be delimited by finite

expressions. Such a one as You are is beyond me. What I see is what I know.

Dhruva is only giving expression to the Rgvedic thought which has now become classical – namely, the relationship

between the universe and God, that is, the question whether originally there was Existence (sat) or non-Existence (asat),

is undecidable (anirvacanIyaM) because,

yukti-dRshTyA-tvanirvAcyaM nAsadAsIditi SruteH

nAsadAsIt vibhAtatvAt nosadAsIcca-bAdhanAt ||

By human logic it is undecidable. The nAsadIya sUkta also says so. Originally it could not have been non-existence,

because now it exists; it could not have been Existence, because the universe came into being later and that means

whatever that existed has changed.

Verse No.9

kalpAnta etad-akhilaM jaTareNa gRhNan

Sete pumAn svadRg-ananta-sakhas-tad-anke

yannAbhi-sindhu-ruha-kAncana-loka-padma-

garbhe-dyumAn bhagavate praNato’smi tasmai||

I prostrate before the Lord, the Purusha, who is fixed in His own Self, who absorbs the entire universe at the end of the

kalpa in His own stomach, who sleeps on the folds of AdiSesha, his friend, and in Whose navel rises the stem of the Golden

Lotus from which Brahma came out.

The phenomenon of the Lord withdrawing everything unto Himself at the end of the kalpa and releasing them at the

beginning of the next morning of Brahma is mentioned in all the Hindu scriptures. cf. Gita: 9 – 7:

sarva-bhUtAni kaunteya prakRtiM yAnti mAmikAM

kalpa-kshaye punastAni kalpAdau visRjAmy-ahaM||

All beings go into My prakRti at the end of a kalpa; I send them forth again at the beginning of the (next) kalpa.

(It is the qualities (= gunas) inherent in Prakrti, not as something separate but as the constitutents which make up the

Prakrti, that gives matter its substance. The qualities are something like strands of the twisted rope of Prakriti. There are, as

it were, two Prakritis, both emanating as the power of Brahman, the Absolute Reality. The Superior Prakriti (paraa-prakriti)

contributes to the spark of the spiritual undercurrent vibrating in each living being.

The inferior Prakriti (aparaa-prakriti)is the Energy that gives rise to Matter. This is also called in the literature by its various

names:

mAyA, because it deceptively hides the spirit behind matter and projects falsity;

pradhaana, the most fundamental, because under the will of Isvara, God, it produces the five elements and then the

universe;

avyakta, the unmanifest, because it is not perceptible to the senses;

jada, the insentient;

avidya, cosmic ignorance;

kshara, the perishable, because it alternates between manifestation and non-manifestation; and kshetra, the field, because it

is the base of all action.

Paraa-prakriti also called paraa-sakti, the supreme power of Brahman, also known as cit-sakthi, the power of cognition, or

pure consciousness or pure spirit, is the source of all energy. It is the abstract form of Brahman to be known and realised by

intuition. A tiny fragment of it appears as jiva, the individual soul, on the one side and isvara, God, on the other side.

Jiva is Matter in association with spirit

Isvara is spirit viewed in relation to Matter

Jiva is spirit under a material envelope

Isvara is Brahman conditioned by our intellect.

Jiva is under the constant spell of mAyA

Isvara is in complete control of mAyA or avidyaa.)

The words kAncana-loka-padma-garbe are significant. The Creator Brahma woke up in the stem of the golden lotus which

sprang from the navel of the Lord. For this reason he is also called hiraNya-garbha (Golden Conception). As Hiranya-garbha

He has a great charge, namely, the charge of the golden container representing the reservoir of all our vasanas. This is the

one that brings forth our repeated births in the trans migratory cycle, so that we may exhaust our vAsanAs. But instead of

exhausting them we add further to the reservoir. And naturally the true phase of Reality is hidden from us because of the

opaqueness of the reservoir of our vAsanAs. The isa-Upansihad therefore contains almost as its last verse a prayer to the

Sun-God, who represents this hiranya-garbha, to give us the vision to transcend our individuality brought on us by our

vAsanAs.

(Cosmic Day of Brahma the Creator – Those people who know the day of Brahma, which is of duration Of a thousand

(mahA-)yugas and the night

Which is also of a thousand (mahA-)yugas They know day and night –bhagavad-Gita, VIII – 17

Creation is just a manifestation of what was unmanifest before. sRSTi and samhAra, creation and dissolution, are only two

events in a long cyclic succession of events. There is no beginning or end. This alternation between manifestation and non-

manifestation is what appears as the passage of time. Manifestation is when the universe of names and forms appears and

non-manifestation is when it disappears. The only Ultimate Reality is brahman. Even Brahma, the Creator (mark the

distinction between this word in the masculine gender and the word brahman, in the neuter gender) is only a manifestation

of brahman at one point of time. He is the womb from which the entire universe becomes manifest and He is the One into

which the entire universe dissolves. Each period of this manifestation of this Universe is a day of Brahma. From one day of

Brahma to another day, that is, from one period of manifestation to another such, many things survive in their latent forms.

Among these are the vedas – it is in this sense that the vedas are eternal – and the complex of prints of individual minds

with their store of impressions called vAsanAs. These survive the nights of Brahma, the period of non-manifestation. The

lengths of these cosmic days and nights in this long cycle of events have been elaborately described in the scriptures. The

units mentioned therein are fantastically large and a modern mind may be tempted to dismiss them as a concoction. But the

consistency with which different scriptures written by different people at different times in the past reveal these magnitudes

of the yugas, is remarkable.

As detailed in the bhAgavata purANa – as well as in various other purANas, though with slight variations – the eternal flow of

Time goes through cyclical periods of manifestation of the universe and equivalent periods of non-manifestation. Each

such period of manifestation (or non-manifestation) is called a kalpa of Brahma the Creator and is equivalent to 4.32 billion

human years. This is subdivided into 14 manvantaras. Each manvantara has a manu ruling over the Earth and an indra

ruling over the heavens. We are now in the seventh manvantara of this kalpa. The previous six manus are listed on the

ensuing page. The present manvantara is called Vaivasvata manvantara because Vaivasvata Manu is the Lord of the Earth

now. Each manvantara is divided into 71 mahA-yugas of 4,320,000 years each. We are in the 28th mahA-yuga of this

manvantara.)

Verse No.10

tvaM nitya-mukta-pariSuddha-vibuddha AtmA

kUtastha Adi-purusho bhagavAn-stryadhISaH|

yad-buddhy-avasthitim-akhaNDitayA svadRshTyA

drashTA sthitA-vadhimakho vyatirikta Asse ||

You are ever-liberated, perfectly pure, the Omniscient Self, the Immutable, the most Ancient Person, the One with all divine

attributes, the Lord of the three worlds and guNas. You, though being the uninterrupted Witness, by your Cosmic Vision, of

the state of intelligence and also the Lord of all sacrifices, are ever aloof from the jIva, the individual soul.

Now we come to the svarUpa-lakshaNa of the Lord. As explained in The Absolute As It Is, satyam jnAnaM anantaM is the

definition of the Transcendental Absolute. Satyam ( Truth) is the same as sat (Absolute Existence). jnAnaM (Knowledge)

and cit (Consciousness) are the same. anantaM (Infinite) and Ananda (Bliss) are the same.

These three facets are presented in EACH of the lines (lines 1, 2 and 4) of this 10th verse of Dhruva-stuti. Since the gAytrI

itself is a presentation of these three facets of the Absolute in its three lines, this 10th verse is taken to represent the

gAyatrI.

Verse No.11

Yasmin virudha gathayo hyanisam pathanthi,

Vidhyadhayo vividha shakthaya anupoorvayath,

Thadruhaa viswa bhavameka manantha maadhyam,

Ananda mathra vikaramaham prapadhye||

You are the fine mixture of opposite qualities,

And in you the powers like knowledge ,

Appear in unbroken succession and you are,

The cause of this universe which is indivisible,

Without any end and without any beginning,

And which is only bliss and I take refuge in you.

Verse No.12

Sathya seersho hi Bhagwan sthava Pada Padma,

Seesthadhaanu bhajatha purushartha moorthe,

Apyeva marya Bhagwan paripathi dheenaan,

Vaasreva vathsaka manugraham katharosmaan.

Oh God who is the personification of truth , the worshipping

Of your lotus like feet is the true blessing ,

Oh God who controls the duties and blessings of life,

Oh God , You look after the down trodden,

Like a cow nourishes its calf and bless them..